55, "in his second consulship" (Vel. Paterculus, ii. 48); but afraid of the criticism of the people, he erected at the top of the seats a temple to Venus. THE SPOT WHERE CÆSAR FELL. In the neighbourhood of his theatre Pompey built a house for himself (Plutarch); and from the back of the stage a portico (Vitruvius), which, according to Propertius (ii. 32), must have been a beautiful place. "Pompey's portico, I suppose, with its shady columns, and magnificently ornamented with purple curtains, palls upon you; and the thickly-planted, even line of plane-trees, and the waters that fall from a sleeping Maro, and in streams lightly bubbling all over." In the centre of this portico Pompey erected a large hall, which he presented to the Roman people for the use of the senate. At the time of Cæsar's assassination the senate house on the Forum was being rebuilt. Suetonius ("Cæsar," lxxx.), says: "Public notice had been given, by proclamation, for the senate to assemble upon the ides of March (15th) in the senate house built by Pompey: the conspirators approved both time and place as most fitting for their purpose." "They killed him in the hall of Pompey, giving him twenty-three wounds" (Livy, "Ep." cxvi.). "The conspirators having surrounded him in Pompey's senate house, fell upon him all together, and killed him with several strokes" (Dion Cassius, "Cæsar." See Suetonius, "Cæsar," lxxxii.). "The place, too, where the senate was to meet seemed providentially favourable for their purpose. It was a portico adjoining the theatre; and in the midst of a saloon, furnished with benches, stood a statue of Pompey, which had been erected to him by the commonwealth when he adorned that part of the city with those buildings. The senate being assembled, and Cæsar entering, the conspirators got close about Cæsar's chair. Cassius turned his face to Pompey's statue, and invoked it, as if it had been sensible of his prayers" (Plutarch. See Florus, iv. 2). "The senate house in which he was slain was ordered to be shut up, and a decree was made that the ides of March should be called parricidal, and that the senate should never more assemble on that day" (Suetonius, "Cæsar," lxxxviii.). _After making the circuit of the seats of the theatre, the Via Chiavari leads to the_ CHURCH OF S. ANDREA DELLE VALLE, built on the site of Pompey's senate house. On the marble plan of Rome, in the Capitoline Museum, a fragment shows Pompey's theatre, portico, and senate house. With the given remains of the theatre and the plan it is easy to find the site of the Curia, which is shown on the plan in the form of a basilica: this will bring the curve exactly at the apse of the Church of S. Andrew. Now, we are told that Cæsar was seated in the chair where in the morning Brutus dispensed justice, so he was, no doubt, seated on the tribunal; and as the tribunal of the church and curia exactly correspond, HERE CÆSAR FELL!